WELCOME!

Howdy all, and welcome to the 2011 edition of my NCAA Tourney Pool site. I've been very busy the past few weeks so, my appologies for not gettting the site updates in place earlier.

Each year, I feel compelled to rewrite my Rules section, to help accomodate for and/or prevent the various difficulties that I encountered during the previous year's pool. I know that I'm a bit long-winded at times, but please understand that there's a lot of work involved in running one of these for such a wide variety of people, while maintaining some semblence of fairness and integrity for all. Anyway, please do me a grand favor and take a few moments to READ THE RULES PAGE for this year's pool. It has been updated for 2011, and I will continue to make updates if anything unexpected pops up over the next couple weeks.

Unofficial Schedule of Events

• Major Conference Tourneys Begin - Monday, March 7
  
  Each basketball conference in NCAA division I holds a conference tourney at the end of their season, to proclaim one conference Champion. Each conference champion gets an automatic entry to the final NCAA tourney.

• Selection Sunday - Sunday, March 13
  
  On this Sunday evening, all conference tourneys will have finished, and the NCAA announces the 68 teams that will be invited to the participate or play-in to the 2011 NCAA Men's Basketball Tourney. All of the teams are seeded and the brackets are finalized at this time.

• Brackets Available - Monday March 14
  
  Please Note: This year, I will only be available to collect brackets on WEDNESDAY March 16th. As soon as the brackets are finalized, I will update the website with a link to an online bracket that you can print and use. I will accept brackets printed from any source, however please make certain that the bracket you use is correct. I have had many situations with incorrect brackets over the years, so I would advise using a reputable source like CBS Sportsline or ESPN.

• Pre-Tourney Play-In Games - Tuesday March 15
  
  Starting in 2011, the NCAA has expanded the tourney field to 68 teams. There will now be FOUR "play-in" games that will account for 4 seeds of the main 64-team tourney. Please note that the Play-In games have NO POINT VALUE in my tourney pool.

• Bracket Collection - Wednesday March 16
  
  I will be in the office on Wednesday ~9am to 5pm to collect brackets from my colleagues and coworkers.
  
  I will be out at The Gasthaus in Waukesha (just south of I-94 on Hwy T), extending pool invitations to any present Stein Club members and other regular patrons (and employees) of the bar. Anyone else who would like to use this oppertunity to drop off their bracket(s) and entry fee's is quite welcome to do so. I will be in the bar area from ~6:00 PM through ~9:00 PM. Send me an e-mail if you need directions. As of 9pm Wednesday... bracket collection will be closed. If I don't have your bracket and you haven't made prior arragements to mail them to me... we will catch you next year!

• Round 1 - Thursday March 17 & Friday March 18
  
  Round 1 of the NCAA tourney begins.

• Round 2 - Saturday March 19 & Sunday March 20
  
  Round 2 of the NCAA tourney begins.

• Sweet Sixteen - Thursday March 24 & Friday March 25
  
  The Sweet Sixteen Round of the NCAA tourney begins.

• Elite Eight - Saturday March 26 & Sunday March 27
  
  The Elite Eight Round of the NCAA tourney begins.

• Final Four - Saturday April 2
  
  The Final Four Round of the NCAA tourney begins.

• National Championship - Monday April 4
  
  The championship game will be played on Monday night. Following the outcome, the final pool winners will be determined and posted on the web site. Prize money will be available Tuesday morning.

Questions, Comments or Concerns

If anyone has any questions at this time, please start a new thread in the Discussion Forum. I will be checking it regularly. If you need to contact me directly, please use the E-mail link on the menu.

- Big D.